Michigan-native Veronica
Zador leads an 11-hour yoga
practice in Royal Oak.
Yoga instructor Veronica Zador aims to empower.
BY JULIE WEINGARDEN DUBIN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRETT MOUNTAIN
cads turn, eyes close, legs
extend and students exhale
as stress drifts away, and the
gentle words of the instructor
float through the room.
"Let your shoulder blades melt down into
your mat," says the familiar voice that has
finally come home.
It's the voice of Veronica Zador, 54, yoga
teacher, grandmother, mother, wife and friend,
who smiles warmly at the 50 yoga students,
both women and men, stretched out on their
backs at the Royal Oak Community Center.
It was this "homecoming celebration"
where Zador chose to join friends in a first-
ever 11-hour yoga practice split between two
dates: Nov. 11 and Nov. 12. The lecture-free
event was designed for students of all levels
and included asana, pranayama and meditation.
Zador was the sole teacher.
"Veronica is tuned in to people's needs, and
she makes everyone feel good no matter what
level they're at," says Mimi Holland-Moritz,
79, a yoga student and teacher who attended
the event. "Everyone who came has a special
feeling towards Veronica — she inspired me to
become a yoga teacher when I was 67 years
old."
Zador, founder of Namaste Yoga and Yoga
Shala of Namaste Yoga in Royal Oak, moved to
Los Angeles two years ago so her husband of
32 years, Ivan Zador, could take a medical
research position. The couple kept their West
Bloomfield home where they raised their
daughters, Liza and Lara. Today, Liza and her
husband, Jason, and their twin 1-year-old sons,
Alexander and Andrew, live in the home.
Zador, who has been teaching for 18 years,
planned the "empower practice" as a way to
give thanks to her first and most-loving yoga
community. "I've been gone for two years and
I thought about how I could give back," she
says. "I realized an 11-hour yoga practice
would be an enormous thank-you card."
Zador is president of the International
Association of Yoga Therapists (an organization
that teaches yoga therapy worldwide) and is
vice president of Yoga Alliance, which has
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